Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter: “There’s no reason now why we wouldn’t be moving into accommodation with Syria and Lebanon. We have dramatically changed the paradigm there.”

By Vered Weiss, World Israel News

Israeli Ambassador to the US Yechiel Leiter says he believes that Syria and Lebanon could normalize relations with Israel before Saudi Arabia does.

In an interview with US conservative nonprofit  PragerU, Leiter said, “There’s no reason now why we wouldn’t be moving into accommodation with Syria and Lebanon. We have dramatically changed the paradigm there. I’m very upbeat about the potential for an Abraham Accord with Syria and Lebanon, which may precede Saudi Arabia.”

Leiter added that talks with Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords “weren’t very far away” in 2019. If US President Donald Trump had remained in office in 2020, it was probable that complete normalization with Saudi Arabia would have occurred.

Talks concerning normalization seemed to be bearing fruit before Hamas invaded Israel on October 7, 2023.

Documents recovered by the IDF in Gaza revealed that Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar viewed the terrorist massacre as an “extraordinary act” that would derail normalization between Saudi Arabia and Israel.

Concerning the potential of Lebanon joining the Abraham Accords, Leiter said, “There’s not a long history of jihadis becoming Jeffersonians.

“We also can’t allow jihadis on our border; we learned that from October 7. We’d like to see [the new leader of Syria, Ahmed] al-Sharaa move in a direction where he’s disbanding the jihadi groups, outlawing terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah, and protecting minorities.”

Leiter expressed cautious optimism, stating that the ceasefire with Lebanon must be “performance-based.”

“To the degree that Lebanon disarms Hezbollah, to that degree, we’re moving towards accommodation and peace,” he added. “We removed our troops. We have five installations on the border; we’ll remove them too.”

Regarding Qatar, Leiter said he is “more uncomfortable with them than anyone else.”

“It’s unfortunate to see journalists in certain areas of public discussion here supporting Qatar and saying that they’re actually allies of the West, and they’re not. They have an agenda, and it’s not a pro-Western agenda.”

Trump courted controversy when he accepted a luxury jet from the Qatari royal family and stated that he intended to use it for Air Force One.

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